In every dark corner of every spaceport in the galaxy, shady deals are being cut by hooded figures with untraceable currency. Down dank alleyways, crawling with vermin and dripping with industrial waste, desperate rogues stalk their unwary prey in cities with exotic names. Huddled over their thick drinks in grey, swirling shisha smoke-filled bars and watering holes on a thousand different worlds, seedy opportunists and listless barflies sip their intoxicating brews and scheme or dream of power and riches to be made or long since lost. This is the galaxy's grimy underworld, where life is cheap and fortunes are exchanged at the barrel of a blaster- the world of scum and villainy.

Marginalized even in the days of the Old Republic, great chunks of the galactic populace found themselves the outcast trash of the galaxy. Whether forced by cruel circumstance or lured by the promise of power and glory, many found their way into crime, and under the rule of the Empire, shady opportunists and dealers willing to trade in forbidden goods thrived. Wherever injustice existed, the afflicted would seek distraction in illegal substances or freedom through force of arms. In either case, the galaxy-spanning underworld waited readily to supply.

Left to their own devises by both the Empire and Republic, the Hutts were among the most obvious to profit from such trade, building vast criminal cartels on the proceeds of extortion, gun running, spice trafficking and slavery. Employing enforcers, fawners and lackeys of all kinds, the slug-like Hutts expanded their influence throughout the Outer Rim, while, closer to the Core, more subtle operations, such as the sinister Black Sun Syndicate, raked quiet fortunes from beneath the feet of the establishment.

In a galaxy full of crime, bounty hunters of all manner and description fulfilled a much needed role, apprehending fugitives on behalf of over-stretched local planetary law enforcement and even grand militaries already occupied with wars on a larger scale. Within the criminal underworld, bounty hunters were a police force of sorts, but one that answered to cold, hard cash rather than any form of law based on principles or ideals.

Like blood, crime runs through the spaceway-veins of the galaxy, sustaining that great body's myriad cells with its ever-flowing life, and feeding the parasites that cling to its underbelly.